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Rogue City
Incented by the reward for killing undead and the prospect of finding Lucas, Mariel, Valentine, and Maiwen made their way to Emberfell. Soon after they entered the city, night fell and they encountered a tiefling and a half-orc fighting a small number of skeletons. After helping them destroy the undead, the tiefling and the half-orc introduced themselves as Normal and Torgan and offered to show the group to a good tavern. They spent an evening of drinking and chatting. Maiwen and Valentine visited the Alchemist's Guild the next day. They spoke to Ballar Freebrook and discovered that Louis Burton had died three years ago. His daughter, Ketifa, was briefly taken into the custody of the militia. Mariel used this time to find Normal and Torgan again and challenged Normal to a duel. Valentine and Torgan had a bet on the outcome of the match, with Valentine backing Mariel and Torgan backing Normal, who won the fight. Valentine then challenged Torgan to a duel, however Torgan knocked him out before he could cast a single spell. Valentine lost 40 gp and his dignity. Mariel, Valentine, and Maiwen then went to the garrison to speak to Captain Bryn Carver Tolbert, who let them speak to Neriss, Ketifa's current guardian. They told her about their quest to find Lucas and together they arranged a meeting with Ketifa the next day. Knowing that the city necropolis was barricaded off from the public and guarded by both the city militia and the Order of the Veiled Sun, our heroes decided to investigate. They were followed inside by Normal and Torgan and together the five of them found the corpse gatherer, a gargantuan creature made from earth and corpses, essentially an animated graveyard. They then discovered the crypt of Maren Kheishon, inside which was a secret passage leading to a dead end. They then parted ways with Normal and Torgan again and returned to the Alchemist's Guild to ask Ballar Freebrook about Maren Kheishon, learning that he was involved in rebuilding Emberfell after its destruction during the Eternal Storm. After spending the night in the shanty town, our heroes were woken by the sound of a young girl crying. Maiwen took interest and found that two members of the Gog Magog Cartel had come to take a young girl, Resrora, away from her mother Hotheris. Upon leaving the shanty town, the three were met by Neriss, who immediately proceeded to try to kill them. She gleefully and singlehandedly almost managed to kill them all, before Valentine put her to sleep with magic and tied her up. At this point, Luvon made an appearance, just in time for Neriss to escape. Luvon rejoined the group for a time, and the four of them were approached the city militia and taken into custody for questioning. In the garrisons holding cells, they met Folyore, a female gnome, who called Maiwen a "gog" and warned the others to kill her. Captain Tolbert explained the situation to them. Neriss had been seen by many witnesses attempting to kill them, however she denied all claims. He told them that he personally believed her, and that if she continued to deny claims, it would be taken to court, where all five of them would be suspect and their actions over the past few days would be thoroughly investigated. He offered a solution to fix everything: our heroes would vouch for Neriss when she said she was trying to arrest them over a misunderstanding. Instead of going through court, the five of them would be given community service. Upon completing the task set, they would be offered absolution for any crimes committed within the city, which Tolbert listed as: destruction of property, disturbing the peace, resisting arrest, duelling within the city, and busking without a license. All five agree, and they were assigned a community payback officer, En Khimmar, who the group referred to as their "babysitter". Our heroes and Neriss were all marked with a tracking sigil on the back of their necks and thus began their "community service" which was revealed to be finding and destroying the source of the undead in the city. En led everyone down into the sewers, explaining that this is where the undead would appear at dusk. After a few hours of searching, they found a secret door and gave the password "Kheishon". They passed through the door, and found themselves inside the ancient tunnel systems beneath Emberfell. After making their way through several traps and spending a few more hours inside the tunnels, they encountered a stone golem. It was a hard fight, as Neriss and Mariel's attacks were useless against the being. Eventually it was felled, but not before it killed En. Neriss then confided her suspicions with the others. She found the task given to them inappropriate for community service and believed that someone was posing as Captain Tolbert, potentially the same person who pretended to be her. She had concluded that someone wanted her and the others dead; she didn't confide in En because she didn't know him and didn't know who she could trust, aside from the ones also wanted dead. The only two connections she could find between herself and our heroes was Ketifa and Lucas. She believed that if Lucas was the key, Ketifa would have been targeted, not her. If Ketifa was the important party, then she (Neriss) had been targeted to stop any interference from her, and Ketifa was wanted by someone. Not dead. They wanted her available. Our heroes agreed to team up with Neriss and find Ketifa, abandoning their "community service". They left the tunnels and went to search for Ketifa at Neriss's home. Finding it empty, they proceeded to the marketplace, where Ketifa often spent time. Here they found evidence of Ketifa having spent time at a terracotta pottery named "Davdak's". Davdak turned out to be a young elven boy that owned the pottery, who they interrogated on Ketifa's whereabouts. He played dumb for a long time, even managing to swindle Maiwen out of some money, before Neriss finally threatened him into telling them where Ketifa was. He revealed that she was in Rogue City and showed them the entrance hidden inside his shop. Entering Rogue City once again, the group wandered for a few hours before finding a dead end. The dead end was new, a wall had been put in, very similar to the one they found in Maren Kheishon's crypt. They turned back and encountered another stone golem, which they again managed to kill. They then were confronted by a group of young people, all armed and all prepared to fight if the group did not leave. After they were convinced they meant no harm, the leader, a female halfling, introduced herself as Welsica and agreed to help them find Ketifa. She brought them to a large chamber filled with dozens upon dozens of tents and beds. Here the group discovered the main purpose of the Gog Magog Cartel: protecting the children of Emberfell. The chamber was full of young children, many of whom had no parents and no way of caring for themselves. They searched the entire chamber, but found no trace of Ketifa or Lucas. Deciding to speak to Davdak again, the group left Rogue City. They found that Davdak's was closed and the door locked. Mariel unlocked the door only to find a drow on the other side attack her. He proceeded to attack the rest of the group, however, early on in the fight, an arrow was shot at him from an unseen ally. He caught it, and then chose to leave, disappearing into the crowd. Needing somewhere to stay the night, Neriss suggested the home of Alkar Triel, Ketifa's tutor and coincidently the person who had just attacked them. After assuring the others that Alkar would never attack them and that the person they just met was almost certainly not him, they agreed to spend the night at his. Alkar agreed to offer them sanctuary for the night. The city militia visited him to ask some questions, however Alkar managed to create an alibi using some magic. After speaking with him alone, Neriss told the others that the guards mentioned that Alkar had been seen attacking a drow and a red dragonborn, among others, meaning that they now knew they weren't continuing their "community service" anymore. After leaving Alkar's in the morning, they were accosted by a young urchin who told them they had to speak to a representative of the Gog Magog Cartel at the abandoned Performer's Guild. The urchin led them there, where they met Caitlin Loyalar. She first advised them to be truthful, then explained the issue. They had found their way into Rogue City, and discovered one of its secrets. Seeing as one of them was a lieutenant of the militia, they had been deemed unlikely to be trustworthy. She revealed that Ketifa had specifically come to the cartel and asked for protection, which they intend to continue providing. Caitlin wanted to know several things: what they intended to do with Ketifa once they found her, whether they intended to tell anyone anything about Rogue City and the cartel, why they wanted to find Lucas, and what they intended to do with him once they found him. When she found their answers unsatisfying, she chose to probe into the backgrounds of each individual. When Valentine wouldn't answer her, she deicded that they couldn't be trusted. An entrance to Rogue City was revealed and Caitlin told them that they couldn't be allowed to live, and that they were all going to walk into Rogue City and face what was down there. She was refused and Maiwen tried to leave, only to find herself frozen in place. Caitlin told them that they would all choose to go through the door, because Ketifa was down there. After encountering a swarm of rats, a few zombies, and several skeletons, our heroes came across a more unusual encounter. They found themselves in a corridor with window slits in the walls. They heard a voice on the other side of one of these walls asking, "Are you real?" The voice also asked why they were there and kept repeating the first question. The topic was finally dropped when Valentine stuck his hand through a window slit for the person to touch and make sure he was really there. As Neriss is deaf and couldn't lip read half of what was being said, she had to have the conversation repeated to her. As soon as the question "are you real?" was repeated, she said aloud, "Ketifa?" After hearing her name, Ketifa quickly left. After encountering some more undead, our heroes found the old main hall of Rogue City; a large cavern, easily twice as large as the chamber where the residents of Rogue City were being kept. Dozens of abandoned tents and beds littered the cavern, as well as several dozen skeletons. Our heroes chose to try to pass through the cavern stealthily, however they encountered two zombies on the way. Two, rather young zombies; residents of Rogue City that weren't so lucky. They were destroyed and our heroes left the cavern, only to come face to face with another stone golem and a wrackspawn. The wrackspawn was felled, and seeing as Mariel and Neriss couldn't do anything to harm the golem, they took to looting while the others continued the fight. Partway through the fight, it was interrupted. Ketifa ran out and cried for everyone to stop. Hearing her, the golem immediately stopped attacking, and fell still. Ketifa placed herself between the golem and the adventurers and demanded that they stop attacking the golem. She was quickly followed by a human adolescent, who Maiwen and Valentine recognised as one of the Gog Magog Cartel members who took Resrora away. He argued that it was the golems job to defend them and that Caitlin had decided these people weren't trustworthy, but Ketifa refused to let the golem fight. The boy left, saying that she wasn't the only one with control over the golems. Ketifa climbed onto the golems shoulders and took a moment to silently observe our heroes. She ignored everything they said and had the golem walk away in the direction the boy had gone. The adventurers followed her, until she came to an archway the golem couldn't fit through. The air next to them suddenly erupted, a small shockwave nearly knocked some off their feet. A dark mess of polyhedral spikes rapidly protruding and retracting hung in the air, surrounding by a wispy fog. It grew into a seemingly half-formed body; a black, skeletal beak, no arms or legs, but a sharp, curved blade where an arm might be. Terrified, Ketifa ordered the golem to attack, which incited the others to join the fight. During the battle, Valentine accidentally hit the golem with a firebolt, something that didn't go unnoticed by Ketifa. While the others (plus the golem) were still fighting, she escaped through the archway. The fight was quick, and the strange creature was destroyed. Our heroes followed after Ketifa, although she was long gone, and found themselves facing a series of traps and wards. The archway itself was protected by explosive runes, after which came a long corridor which had invisible people hidden in the rafters with bombs. Then a winding corridor which contained a stasis snare and more window slits, through which spells were cast. This passage led to an empty room. Upon trying to open the next door, it was revealed to be a mimic. After killing it, another secret door was found, the kind encountered in the sewers. Unable to guess the password, everyone doubled back through the winding corridor. Our heroes managed to pick the lock on a door there, and found a common room of sorts. Inside the room was Davdak. The adventurers took a short rest in the room, during which Davdak tried to sell them healing potions. Instead, Valentine knocked him out and stole all the potions. They then decided to tie him up and take him with them to the secret door. When there, they woke Davdak and demanded the password from him, which he gave easily, "Kolobok." They let him go before they entered the next room, which turned out to be another dangerous trap. The room would turn into a dangerous inferno, with a rune in the middle to protect anyone who stands on it. After this came a spiral staircase. Going up first, Luvon tripped over someone invisible. There were several invisible bodies on the stairs, plus two that were visible. Those that they could see were both teenagers. They were discovered to be alive, just unconscious, and our heroes continued up the stairs. Apparently past the traps and wards, our heroes investigated a series of rooms, including a kitchen, a medical room, and a bedroom, among others, picking up a bag of holding along the way. At the very end of the corridor, they found another living quarter. Inside Maiwen and Valentine entertained themselves by drawing portraits of each other in a sketchbook they found, a sketchbook already full of many drawings, some of people they recognised, such as Ketifa. A young half-elf then revealed herself. She introduced herself as Elke and asked to talk, appearing quite amicable. She asked why they were going to such lengths for a couple of kids they didn't know. Although she didn't know who Lucas was, she made a guess that he was a child from Rogue City. She explained that if this was the case then finding him would mean taking him back to Fletcher, the person Lucas had most likely escaped from. After speaking to Elke for some time, everyone heard someone enter the next room. Mariel hid and Maiwen jumped behind a curtain into a smaller room, which set off a Wall of Fire glyph and immediately knocked her unconscious. Not knowing what happened to her, Valentine jumped through the wall of fire, his dragonborn heritage granting him resistance, and he was able to heal her. With Maiwen now conscious, the two realised they were sitting on a teleportation circle. In the main room, Caitlin Loyalar arrived. Worried about Elke's safety, Caitlin asked if she recognised any of the people in the room, and then asked what had been said and done up until this point. Still considering the adventurers to be untrustworthy, Caitlin tried to convince Elke to leave and find somewhere safe. Elke refused, saying that she thought they were just misguided. The Wall of Fire now finished, Valentine and Maiwen reentered the room. For the second time that day, everyone saw the half-formed, skeletal creature try to manifest, however this time the attempt completely failed. As the creature disappeared, it dispelled all magic in the room and Elke and Caitlin's true forms were revealed. Caitlin no longer looked like Caitlin, instead a young half-elf, Rolanda. Elke however, was revealed to be a lich. Mariel immediately tried to attack Elke and was hit by her paralyzing touch. Rolanda went to defend her, however Elke stopped her from attacking and tried to defuse the situation, saying she didn't want to fight. She explained that she didn't know how she became a lich and didn't want to be one. For the third time that day, the eldritch mess returned. This time it managed a coherent, fully-formed shape; that of Manaia, a sorrowsworn of the Raven Queen. Upon manifesting and seeing the scene around her, she commented, "This is unfortunate." She told our heroes that this didn't concern them and advised they to leave, though everyone refused this. She described her job as bounty hunting of sorts and explained that she was there on the Raven Queen's orders to "reap" Elke. She then went on to explain that all liches have a phylactery that houses their soul, however Elke's phylactery was Rolanda. Manaia tried to negotiate with the half-elves, telling them that Elke had to die either way, but Rolanda didn't, if only she would willingly give up Elke's soul. Rolanda refused. This was interrupted by Ketifa entering the room, who told Elke that Manaia was lying and wanted to kill Rolanda. Elke seemed to think that this was someone other than Ketifa, as she called them Erui. Our heroes quickly figured out that Erui was likely the person who attacked them disguised as Neriss. Elke and Rolanda continued to refuse Manaia, and so she began combat with them, aiming her attacks at Rolanda only. Mariel also chose to attack Rolanda, Elke and Erui jumped to her defense, while everyone else initially was unsure of what to do. Maiwen directed one spell at Elke and Neriss chose to defend the half-elves against Manaia. The fight was brief, and ended with Elke and Rolanda running to the teleportation circle and Rolanda casting Erupting Earth to fill the room with earth and block them off from everyone else. After a moment, Manaia confirmed that they had left Rogue City. She then healed everyone in the vicinity and pulled out an ornate pair of scissors, which she used to cut a portal in the air. She climbed through it and it closed behind her. Left alone with a likeness of Ketifa, our heroes turned their attention to Erui after Manaia's abrupt departure. When asked who they were, Erui replied that it depended, they could be anyone they wanted them to be. They taunted Neriss by turning into a likeness of someone who was revealed to be Neriss's dead sister, Lesandra. They told the adventurers that they were going to find Ketifa and warned everyone that the only reason they were leaving them alive was because they had somewhere to be. A voice was heard outside the room, calling for Caitlin. Upon hearing this, Erui morphed into Rolanda just before an adolescent dark elf entered the room. Mistaking Erui for Rolanda, she told them that "everyone" had been knocked unconscious and that Ketifa had disappeared. Erui then knocked her unconscious by smashing her head against the wall and ran out of the room, Neriss following immediately behind. Our heroes followed shortly after, but not before losing sight of them. They found their path blocked by several teenagers, a couple of which they had seen before, and Erui and Neriss nowhere in sight. Each of the Gog Magog Cartel members had already taken a substantial amount of damage and most were knocked unconscious easily, with just a couple of them retreating to find Rolanda. Our heroes then managed to find their way to Ketifa's workshop by using a map of Rogue City they had found earlier. When they arrived, they found Erui fighting Neriss and the stone golem encountered earlier. While fighting two opponents, Erui was trying to persuade Ketifa to open the door to her workshop. They told her that a sorrowsworn of the Raven Queen came to take Elke and Rolanda and they ran, that they wouldn't stick around to protect her because "we have the power to protect them from a god". They said that whatever her father told her was wrong, that she was in the same boat as Elke and Erui, that if she went with them, she didn't have to be afraid anymore. The fight didn't last long, and Erui was killed, smashed into the ground by the golem. As soon as they died, their appearance changed, their skin turned an ashy grey and their pupils and irises disappeared, leaving just a pale yellow sclera. No one could identify what manner of creature they were. Even after Erui was dead, Ketifa refused to come out of her workshop. Valentine used minor illusion to make his voice sound like Neriss's. He gave a heartfelt performance, pleading with Ketifa to come out, and ended with "I love you" to which Ketifa replied with, "What the fuck?" He tried again, this time making it sound like Neriss was dying, begging for help. Ketifa gave no response to this. Trying a third time, he switched to Ketifa's own voice and told her to open the door, calling her an asshole. Again, there was no response from her. When Neriss was told what he did, she warned him not to mess with Ketifa's head. Seeing as Ketifa wasn't going to make an appearance any time soon, our heroes decided to wait it out. After a couple of hours, Ketifa agreed to make a deal with them. She promised information on Lucas in return for safe passage out of Emberfell and an item from Maiwen's bag of holding. The deal was struck, and Ketifa finally revealed herself only to take Maiwen's bag and turn it inside out, making the contents spill everywhere. In addition to everything Maiwen had put in the bag, there were a few more items; a couple of magical items, a hat of disguise (which Ketifa took), and an unmarked book. Mariel later discovered that this was Elke's diary which documented her life (or rather undeath) over the past year. Our heroes, plus Neriss and Ketifa, made their way out of Rogue City and to Neriss's home. Ketifa then told them everything she knew about Lucas. Her father had taken her to visit Fletcher in Hazelhaven on occassion when she was younger, but hadn't seen Lucas since then. She knew nothing about his disappearance, however, a few days before her father died, he told her that he had made a great mistake, that she was in danger and it was his fault. He told her that many of his friends were working towards something great. He believed in the cause but would not let Ketifa be involved because he didn't want what happened to Lucas to happen to her. People helped Lucas become "better" and "more talented" and people would do the same to her if they let them. Disatisfied with what she had told them, Valentine tried prying for more information and asked about her father's death. Angry, Neriss took him upstairs and explained that Louis Burton and Ketifa had made homunculi together and that he died when their homunculi ripped him to pieces. She explained that Ketifa had been present for his death and that it was a rather traumatic thing to bring up. Back downstairs, an argument sprung up when Neriss refused to let Ketifa leave the city, saying that the garrison should be the ones protecting her. It was then decided that Luvon and Ketifa would stay at the house while the others went to the garrison to finally put the community service issue to rest and for Neriss's to talk about Ketifa's protection. At the garrison, Captain Tolbert explained that he had been controlled when he issued their "community service" and how they had been searching for them ever since. He then urged them to collect the reward (3000 gp) for defeating the source of the undead. Neriss stayed behind at the garrison to speak to the captain, while our heroes decided to go shopping. Mariel made an unusual purchase in a cat that can speak for her, meaning that communication wouldn't be so much of an issue from now on. She named the cat Kravitz. Maiwen bought herself a book on druidic shapeshifting. They also met a recruiter for the Warcester Warrior Entertainment, who gave them a leaflet and encouraged them to join and fight as gladiators for entertainment. On the way back to Neriss's home, the group noticed that there was a large amount of smoke coming from its direction. They returned to find the house ablaze. Maiwen tried to put the flames out, while Valentine ran inside to find anyone, however it was all to no avail, the fire was already too strong for anything to be done. The three of them returned to the garrison to speak to Captain Tolbert and explain what had happened. They told him what transpired in Rogue City, that there was a lich and that it would not be coming back, but beyond this they were vague on details. When asked, Mariel lied and said they learnt nothing about the Gog Magog Cartel. At the captain's recommendation, our heroes spent the night at the Flying Fox Tavern, where they met a man hunched over his drink, muttering "I can't go back" repeatedly under his breath. Taking an interest, Maiwen spoke to him, and he revealed that just a few months prior he was working in Senedrok, a country in the northeast of Eyera. He was caught up in the military coup there and shared the story of his steward being killed by an invisible missile. While Maiwen started her usual routine of asking for hot water from the barkeep, Mariel ordered vodka for Valentine and proceeded to get him drunk until he opened up about his past. In return, she revealed that she lost her tongue to a bear in a mountain climbing accident. Being amnesiac, there wasn't much Valentine could tell her about his own past, however, the more he spoke, the more of the past year he remembered. He revealed that he had woken up on the back of a cart being driven by a man who ignored him. He had spent several months travelled around the southern towns in The Valleys, performing for money until he inevitably burnt down a tavern or the like and was run out of town. After speaking about this, he suddenly seemed to remember something, and started quivering in fear, whimpering about "him," afraid he would find him. The next morning, Valentine used illusory script to write a secret message for Captain Tolbert. Anyone but the captain looking at the paper would see a fake message written in Celestial. Mariel stealthily followed him to the garrison where he gave the message to the captain. While Valentine was there, he was told that two bodies had been found in the wreckage of the fire; Neriss and Ketifa had perished. The captain also warned him that the Order of the Veiled Sun would be looking for him and his companions, wanting to hear their account of what happened with the lich. He promised that he would deal with them and advised them to stay away from anyone from the order. Mariel, still hidden, heard the entire exchange. Meanwhile, Maiwen went to read her book in peace at the temple of Syreth. She then went to visit the ruins of Neriss's home and found Fletcher's leather case. It had been previously revealed that the prosthetic arm had been made for Ketifa, who melted her old prosthetic in an alchemy accident. The old prosthetic in question was inside the case, which Maiwen decided to keep. After Valentine made his way back from the garrison he balled up the note he had written and threw it away. Seeing this, Mariel snatched it up and went to find someone who could read Celestial. She discovered that the fake message read, "Valentine would like to kindly ask whoever is trying to decipher this to keep their fat nose out of his business!" She then revealed herself to him and the two went to find Maiwen, only to spot Ketifa instead, entering a store. They followed her inside, but not before Valentine turned himself invisible. Inside the store they were met by a bearded, grizzled man in his thirties, not Ketifa. He demanded to know what had happened to Rolanda and Elke. Mariel answered his questions, telling him about a "priestess" of the Raven Queen, but being vague about details. The man threatened her, saying that if they revealed any information about the Gog Magog Cartel they would hunt them down. After Mariel left, Valentine stayed in the store and watched as the man's disguise faded away to reveal an adolescent boy, perhaps fifteen years old. A young half-orc dropped her invisibility and the two had a conversation about the cartel and their worries, inadvertently revealing to Valentine how overwhelmed they had been in the past few days. The boy, Norben, left the half-orc, Falarel, after a few minutes, and made his way to the Golden Alembic, an apothecary previously visited by Maiwen, with Valentine in tow. He tried to follow Norben in through the door, but was detected and instead chose to flee. After meeting up with Mariel again, they agreed to check out the shop. Valentine distracted the shopkeep, a seven foot orc, by setting a panther from his bag of tricks on him, and the two ran into the back room and hid. Valentine climbed on top of a tall cabinet, turning himself invisible, while Mariel hid in a cupboard. The same cupboard, in fact, that Ketifa was currently hiding in. The orc defeated the panther, and Ketifa let Mariel know that there was no danger to be expected from him. She then demanded that they keep up their end of the bargain and help her get out of the city, furious that they had already failed this task once. Mariel agreed, and gave her the option of leaving the city or trying to find Rolanda and Elke. Ketifa chose to leave. Unaware of where Valentine had gone, Mariel met up with Maiwen and managed to smuggle Ketifa out of the city without incident. Once out of the city, Valentine decided he wanted to get some more information out of Ketifa. He disguised himself as Neriss and revealed himself to the others, pretending something was wrong with his voice and that he couldn't speak. Mariel however, was quick to catch on to his ploy. They travelled throughout the day and set up camp outside a small town named Bamborough. Valentine created a phantom steed and left to the town to get towels and wine. After he left, Mariel watched as a pair of scissors cut a portal in the air. Manaia stepped out of it, and behind her, was Neriss.